June 12/09 22:33 pm - Tour de Beauce: Stage 4b report and results

Posted by Editoress on 06/12/09

This evening the traditional criterium stage of Tour de Beauce was held downtown in St-Georges. Although it does not count for the general classification, the race is a crowd favourite, and for some teams not in the GC hunt, a chance to possibly grab some glory.

Mark Cronshaw gave Rapha Condor their second stage win, as he pipped local favourite Charles Dionne (Fly V Australia) at the line. Raymond Kreder (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin U23) took third ahead of Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia) in the four rider breakaway.

An initial group of ten, including Cronshaw, Dionne, Kreder, Sulzberger and Ryan Roth (Planet Energy) formed less than 10 laps into the 40 lap race. By the 15 lap mark, aggressive riding by Dionne had brought this group down to the final four, who steadily pulled away from the disinterested field.

Despite not counting in the GC, the chief commissaire warned the teams that if a rider is lapped twice they will not be able to start the next stage, tomorrow in Quebec City. The reason was to stop riders pulling out en masse, but it led to a difficult situation for Gord Fraser's Team Type 1 squad, when their rider Chris Jones, fourth on GC, pulled into the technical zone for a free lap because of brake problems.

"The commissaire wouldn't recognize it as a mechanical, so now Chris is a lap down," explained Fraser. "So if the break laps the field he is two laps down and out of the race! It was a bullshit rule."

Team Type 1 had to expend energy that they would have rather saved for tomorrow towing the peloton around for the last 15 laps to avoid being caught by the break.

The sprint for the stage win came down to Dionne and Cronshaw, with Dionne admitting to making a mistake that cost him the win.

"I messed up, it was my fault because I left it too late."

Race Note

- Prior to the start of the stage, 10 of the 15 Directeur Sportifs lined up for a short race of their own - three laps of the circuit. It was an impressive line up, with riders like Steve Bauer, Gord Fraser, Axel Merckx, Jonas Carney, Mike Sayers, Henk Vogels, hann McRae, Arvis Piziks, Dom Perras, Mathieu Toulouse and other former pros on the line. Combined, this group probably had more wins among them then the entire peloton. Chann McRae (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin U23) took the 'win' ahead of Fraser (Team Type 1) and Mat Toulouse (Equipe Quebec).